When Tunisian police shut down a planned demonstration on January 27, they claimed they did it for the protesters’ safety. “We had information that they were going to be targeted,” said an interior ministry spokesperson, according to news reports.

Mounir Baatour, an activist working with ALP and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights organization Shams, told Human Rights Watch that the Association of Free Thinkers notified the authorities of the planned protest, as required under Tunisian law, on January 24. On January 26, after Shams publicly supported the protest and put out a call for LGBT people to attend, Interior Ministry officials summoned ALP’s president and told him the protest was prohibited, without further explanation. “There was no security threat. It’s because the authorities are homophobic.”

“Tunisia has, at times, allowed for demonstrations critical of government policy, but Saturday’s shutdown – following on the heels of a range of police abuses during protests in early January over the adoption of austerity measure - raises questions about the depth of Tunisia’s commitment to the fundamental right to peaceful protest.”

The Tunisian authorities cannot pick and choose. Abiding by their international human rights obligations means allowing diverse voices to be heard – including the voices of sexual and gender minorities.

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